Northern Lights Magic: Illumination and Wonder
There is something about the Northern Lights that makes us pause—not just to look, but to feel.
To see the sky suddenly come alive, awash in greens and violets that shimmer and shift like whispered secrets, is to experience something both ancient and fleeting. It is a reminder of the mysteries we will never fully grasp, the kind of beauty that refuses to be captured or owned.
And yet, we try. We chase it. We travel across the world for a glimpse, hoping to catch nature in one of its rarest, most spellbinding moods. Today, we have science to explain this phenomenon, but imagine the wonder our ancestors had when admiring such a spectacle.
The context behind the Northern Lights Magic Bead is fascinating, as it is a tiny portal into something bigger than ourselves.
The Meaning of the Northern Lights: Myth, Science, and Emotion
For as long as humans have looked up, we have told stories about the lights in the sky.
Ancient Myths: The Lights as Spirits and Guardians
The Vikings believed the aurora borealis was the reflection of Valkyrie shields, guiding fallen warriors to Valhalla. A cosmic battle cry, marking the transition from one world to the next.
For the Sámi people of Scandinavia, the lights were sacred spirits, dancing above the earth, watching over the living. To whistle at them was to invite danger—to disrupt the unseen world and risk calling something unknowable down to you.
In Inuit legend, the lights were messages from ancestors, flickering across the Arctic sky, whispering wisdom from those who had come before. Some believed they were spirits playing a game, their movements erratic and joyful, a celestial dance just beyond reach.
The explanation is simple; these lights are caused by charged solar particles colliding with Earth’s atmosphere— so why does the magic remain? Because standing beneath them is not about understanding, but rather about what we don't understand.
Anna Boberg, Northern Lights, early 1900
The Emotional Experience of the Northern Lights
As the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton once described,
"The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable. As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled."
Many say they see a faint shimmer at first, barely noticeable. And then, suddenly, the sky explodes into ribbons of amazing bright color, cascading and shifting as if something unseen is pulling invisible threads. There is no sound. No warning. Just the slow realization that you are watching something impossibly rare.
This is awe—that rare feeling of being part of something so much larger than yourself, the same feeling you get when staring at the ocean’s horizon or standing at the foot of an ancient mountain.
The People’s Bead: 2018 Highlight of the Year
Every year, Trollbeads hosts the People’s Bead Event, where collectors and fans submit their designs and vote on the one they love most. In 2018, the Northern Lights Magic Bead took the Trollbeads world by storm as it claimed first place being the clear winner. Fans raved about this bead skyrocketing it to the top of the bestseller list.
The winner is an artist named Linda Kucina from Latvia. Her inspiration arose when she saw the Auroras on a trip to Tromsø in Norway. This moved her to immediately start painting the scene as if not to lose it from memory. She recounts being hesitant to enter the People's Bead contest, but eventually submitted her entry.
"I decided to participate (in the event) just to tell myself that I have done all I could do to get the bead I wished for." -Linda Kuchina, 2018 People's Bead Winner
Bead with a Story
If ever there was a bead that represented the meaning behind Trollbeads, it's the Northern Lights Magic Bead. We adore the design and craftsmanship, but more than that it is perhaps the memories of traveling to witness something remarkable, a symbol that reminds us we are limitless, or the feelings we share with those we love most.
Whatever your stories are, they were meant for you.
